Abuja, 02 September 2015: A midterm review to assess the performance of two implementation research projects supported by WHO in Nigeria and implemented by the Centre for Integrated Health Program (CIHP) and Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN) has ended in Nigeria’s capital Abuja with promising results. The two projects which are known as INSPIRE (INtegrating and Scaling up Pmtct through Implementation REsearch) is a collaboration between the World Health Organization and Ministries of Health in Nigeria, Malawi and Zimbabwe and funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development (DFATD).

The 5-year project which commenced in 2012 are aimed at examining whether Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) has the potential to increase Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) uptake and retention of HIV-positive pregnant and breastfeeding women (LJM) and determining the impact of Mentor Mother Programs on PMTCT Service uptake and retention.

Findings from the review revealed some of the progress made so far in recruiting subjects and sustaining their participation and the challenges of implementation research in unstable environment, strategies and innovative ways employed to overcome them. In the words of Dr OYELADE Adedamola of WHO “the findings show some promising results and we are optimistic that early learnings from the project will inform policy and improve programming in Nigeria”

Some of the early lessons learned are the need to control for real world mitigating factors in order to objectively measure the effectiveness of the Continuous Quality Improvement –Break Through Series intervention package and the need for longer enrolment and extended periods for testing change ideas during Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycles.  Other learnings include the potentials importance of facility based Continuing Medical Education (CMEs) for nurses towards improving quality of service delivery, redesigning current Ante Natal Care (ANC) flow with service integration in view and instituting a clock-in regulation to address delay of clients within health facilities. Although there is evidence of the effectiveness of frequent facility led community outreaches to improve uptake of ANC & maternity services, contextual differences need to be further explored.

The Mid-Term Review of the INSPIRE project was attended by PMTCT and implementation research stakeholders in the country including participants from the HIV Division of FMOH, National AIDS Coordinating Agency, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, National PMTCT Task Team, Kaduna, FCT, Benue and Nasarawa states WHO HQ and Country Office, UNAIDS, DFATD, EU, other national implementing partners and Principal investigators and team members from the two projects.

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 Technical contacts:

 Dr Taiwo Oyelade – oyeladet [at] who.int